Jon M. Brower | The Grand Rapids PressA hat crocheted by "Ernie" awaits someone to pick it up along South Division Avenue in Grand Rapids.

Some folks donate cash to a cause or charity. Then there are people like Ernie.

That's not his real name. But everything else about him seems to be the real thing. Three times a week, Ernie shows up at City Knitting in Eastown and spends several hours crocheting wool caps. Then he gives them away in some of Grand Rapids' poorest neighborhoods.

Ernie not only produces real goods for the poor and disenfranchised, he also personally disperses them among what arguably are some of Grand Rapids' most unapproachable residents.

I met Ernie on Monday morning in the Heartside neighborhood that rims the southern edge of downtown. It's where he goes virtually every week to hang homemade caps in trees and along fences.

Ernie doesn't want any publicity or extensive credit. He just wants to help keep people warm.

Crocheting is a skill Ernie taught himself largely by watching instructional videos on YouTube. He only learned how to crochet in January. And already, by his own estimate, he's tramped downtown to hang "between 30 and 35" caps for the homeless and others to discover.

Each one carries a little handwritten note.

"Take me, I'm free!"

"Free to a good head."

You deserve this."

"Enjoy!"

"Smile!"

Hollyn Johnson | The Grand Rapids Press"Ernie" hangs a hat for the taking on South Division Avenue.

Monday morning, in 8-degree weather, Ernie hung his first offering in a sapling along Cherry Street, just west of South Division Avenue. Then he walked along Division to dangle five more.

In the ensuing hour, none were snatched up. But by noon, when I returned, only two remained. Ernie his caps usually disappear more quickly in somewhat warmer weather, and in afternoon rather than morning hours, when "there seem to be more people out."

He makes no judgments about where his caps might end up. "Whoever gets it, I guess that person needs it," he said.

Ernie never sticks around to meet or even spy the recipients, mostly, he says, because "it goes toward honoring their dignity."

Ernie is guarded about his identity, except to note that he's a recently divorced father of two who graduated high school in this county, served a stint in the U.S. Coast Guard and works in the service industry.

"I've always been kind of an 'in-the-woodwork' kind of person," Ernie said. "Besides, it's not about me. It's about them."

"Them," of course, are the men and women of Heartside. They suffer from bad luck, poor decisions and an economy that isn't helping.

At City Knitting, 423 Norwood Ave. SE, where it's as much about sharing and community as it is crafting, Ernie is something of an enigma. "None of us know him very much," owner Lorilee Beltman said. "He doesn't talk a lot about himself.

"But when we learned he was looking for yarn," she said of other knitters who heard about Ernie's cause and need, "it sort of poured in for him."

If Ernie has no donated wool, he'll buy it. It costs between $6 and $8 for the materials to make a one-size-fits-all cap. He can complete a cap in about two hours. On Monday, Ernie showed me one cap created from scraps, a testament to his economical use of yarn.

When he's not crocheting at City Knitting, he spends time in his Grand Rapids-area studio apartment, listening to the likes of Sufjan Stevens or Martin Sexton while he crochets some more.

His one-man mission to warm the heads of Heartside has found a fan in Marge Palmerlee, executive director of Degage Ministries at 144 S. Division, a daytime haven for many of the area's residents.

"What a tangible way to say, 'I care,'" Palmerlee said. "It's that kind of thoughtfulness that goes a long way. Oftentimes, people don't need a million dollars. They need a warm hat.

"How creative that he's using his gifts to bless others in such an original way. And especially with the winter we've had. It's pretty amazing."

Said Ernie: "I just think everybody should be treated as a human being. And if everybody did just one little thing, it would improve the lives of so many people."